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Would You Have Preferred Pokemon: Sword and Shield The Series Over Journeys?

Sorry but what is with blaming Fujisaku for anything and everything including random hypothetical scenarios? The guy has had a few misfires, I agree. However, he has also had a lot of solid, even excellent, episodes. Are you telling me that there were no shit episodes before SM, when he joined the writing team? There have been plenty of patchy writers and also even the best writers have had some duds. He is also not responsible for anything other than the individual episodes he writes. Shouji Yonemura, a writer who has been around since Kanto, is the current series constructor, as Aya Matsui, Atsuhiro Tomioka and Takeshi Shudo were in previous series.

Stop taking that man's name in vain, for the love of all that is holy.
 
Sorry but what is with blaming Fujisaku for anything and everything including random hypothetical scenarios? The guy has had a few misfires, I agree. However, he has also had a lot of solid, even excellent, episodes. Are you telling me that there were no shit episodes before SM, when he joined the writing team? There have been plenty of patchy writers and also even the best writers have had some duds. He is also not responsible for anything other than the individual episodes he writes. Shouji Yonemura, a writer who has been around since Kanto, is the current series constructor, as Aya Matsui, Atsuhiro Tomioka and Takeshi Shudo were in previous series.

Stop taking that man's name in vain, for the love of all that is holy.
He’s had some solid episodes yea, but he’s got more bad episodes than good. And while there may have been some bad episodes before SM, with Fujisaku, when he’s bad, he’s infamously bad. The type that leaves a memorable mark for all the wrong reasons. Things like having Ash use Pikachu against a ground type specialist with no plan only to asspull Soak for a win or pulling a troll move with Rowlet at the League of all places are blights that don’t just wash away. If people use his name in vein, it’s because he’s earned the ire.
 
Ok, so you really wanna argue this with me. Fine.

He’s had some solid episodes yea, but he’s got more bad episodes than good.
I would dearly love to see you put this in black and white, because I don't think you can actually justify this statement.

In fact, having had a look through myself, I have identified only 4 episodes for which I remember the consensus opinion being bad: SM076, SM109, SM126 and SM133.

In all of these cases, Fujisaku is unlikely to be the decision maker on the episode's premise or key moment which is hated (Pikachu learns a new move to beat Mimi, Pikachu being used vs Hapu, the existence of that moronic "adventure" episode in the first place, or the presence of a fake-out knock-out in the vs Hau match) although I would agree that in all cases the execution was poor.

And while there may have been some bad episodes before SM, with Fujisaku, when he’s bad, he’s infamously bad. The type that leaves a memorable mark for all the wrong reasons. Things like having Ash use Pikachu against a ground type specialist with no plan only to asspull Soak for a win or pulling a troll move with Rowlet at the League of all places are blights that don’t just wash away. If people use his name in vein, it’s because he’s earned the ire.
Junki Takegami had all these same types of moments which I once wrote a comparison post on (though darned if I could find it again), but does not get the same reaction. As a sample, he is responsible for Takeshi's Iwark getting sprinkler'd, "Aim for the horn!" and Thunder Armour to name but a few.

FYI Takegami is my favourite ever writer so you needn't think I'm being unfairly biased against him/towards Fujisaku. (I chose him as my example because he's the writer whose episodes I just know.) I honestly think that if you pick out any writer who has written enough episodes, you will find at least a smattering of shit.

All I'm saying is: it's wrong to unnecessarily drag any individual's name in the mud. If you don't have faith in the writing staff then say that without namedropping Fujisaku, just because it's cool to be on that bandwagon.
 
Ok, so you really wanna argue this with me. Fine.


I would dearly love to see you put this in black and white, because I don't think you can actually justify this statement.

In fact, having had a look through myself, I have identified only 4 episodes for which I remember the consensus opinion being bad: SM076, SM109, SM126 and SM133.

In all of these cases, Fujisaku is unlikely to be the decision maker on the episode's premise or key moment which is hated (Pikachu learns a new move to beat Mimi, Pikachu being used vs Hapu, the existence of that moronic "adventure" episode in the first place, or the presence of a fake-out knock-out in the vs Hau match) although I would agree that in all cases the execution was poor.


Junki Takegami had all these same types of moments which I once wrote a comparison post on (though darned if I could find it again), but does not get the same reaction. As a sample, he is responsible for Takeshi's Iwark getting sprinkler'd, "Aim for the horn!" and Thunder Armour to name but a few.

FYI Takegami is my favourite ever writer so you needn't think I'm being unfairly biased against him/towards Fujisaku. (I chose him as my example because he's the writer whose episodes I just know.) I honestly think that if you pick out any writer who has written enough episodes, you will find at least a smattering of shit.

All I'm saying is: it's wrong to unnecessarily drag any individual's name in the mud. If you don't have faith in the writing staff then say that without namedropping Fujisaku, just because it's cool to be on that bandwagon.
Firstly, it’s not an argument. You started off coming in being aggressive about people disliking a writer as if trying to tell people how to feel about them. When his name is attached to some stinkers especially more recently as the series went on, people are going to be more abrasive about said writer. And even if they aren’t his decisions, his name is attached to it. You can be handed a decision of how something is to play out and at least make the execution of it at least serviceable but that’s not what happened. And people are abrasive at best of him, don’t act like we’re sending him death threats like he did get from Japanese fans from the Rowlet troll at the league. Also, just because there are those who dislike him, doesn’t mean that it’s a bandwagon. Different people have their own reasons for disliking his writing.

As for episodes of his that were bad, adding to the list:

SM057 (literally just a Rotomdex gets lost episode)
SM064 (was banned for blackface)
SM095 (complete filler repeating a gags with the Hikers and Golem’s facial hair for an unnecessarily long time)
SM104 (Hapu’s introduction, having her come across exceptionally rude and features Ash trying to battle her ground types with Pikachu)
SM117 (spending the episode of them arriving in an actual interesting location from the games on a Pokémon get list’ filler)
SM129 (lazy execution to the start of the league, skipping through the entire preliminary round barely even showing anything of the battles due to the breakneck pace)
SM139 (Ash’s league win is achieved by basically repeating the same attacks over and over and having them fail only to DeM “counter the counter” to give him the win)
JN005 (Go’s infamous flip flop on catching Scorbunny despite rejecting it just prior to the Snorlax situation)
JN026 (polarizing beyond belief)

He can do well with SoL, but when things tend to fall outside of that, his writing tends to fall pretty flat. Opinions are subjective. I won’t take this further especially when the posts in this thread just got checked by the staff so I’ll just end it here saying my piece.
 
Sorry if I came across as aggressive and argumentative, it just gets on my wick that his name gets dragged in the mud even when he is irrelevant to the topic at hand.

We're not going to agree on the contents of your list :p Pax?
 
Well I don’t personally like Fujisaku's episodes (even though Ash vs Gladion was unexpectedly good), I don't assume that an episode will be good or bad based on the writer. A tomioka episode isn’t guaranteed to be good, a Fujisaku episode isn’t guaranteed to be bad. I'm pretty sure the "argument" in the original context of Fujisaku's name being used is moot: since he’s writing for Journeys.
 
Sword and Shield the Series is what I want to see. I want to see Ash, Go, Koharu, Victor and Gloria.

I want to see a companion based on a male player character. I know Ash was based on male player characters but it will be interesting if an acutal male player character was a companion to Ash.
 
Not really unless it had been handled differently instead of being the same pattern that we dealt with from Kanto through Kalos. I like that this saga is trying something different because the constant run of 20 fillers > gym 2-parter > 20 fillers > gym 2-parter > 20 fillers that used to go on for 3 to 4 years per saga was just too much.
That pattern may work for Johto but is extremely reductive for later series. And Journeys isn't really far from being 10 fillers (6 of which take place en Kanto)>PWC match that comes from nowhere>10 fillers, etc.
 
The notion that the previous anime series had so much filler is just strange to me. Aside from Johto, most arcs and series aren't really that filler heavy. Not to mention the idea that nothing happened between Ash's Gym battles is a huge exaggeration and disservice to the storylines that other characters had.
 
At first I was even wondering why they decided to do something like this .But after seeing the story of Pokemon journeys it is sure for me that journeys is a new and good content to be made for a series ,First I love this because of the concept of travelling all around the pokeworld as an refresher.
Second I believe that Ash wouldn't miss any big story of Galar region.
Third seeing Bea as an rival is even more exciting just than a gym leader against who he would battle only once and just leaving off.
Fourth I believe that Ash would meet all of his old companions and rivals (atleast some)
Fifth is the continuity of the early series story like the Ather family's search for Mohn .
 
You could have Ash be the expected favourite to win due to being the Alola Champion only to be uncomfortable with the extra pressure on how he looks and acts as a commentary on child celebrities. Alternatively you could have audiences and the other Challengers be antagonistic towards Ash due to being seen as an "outsider" who couldn't win the League in his homeland of Kanto so he goes around entering other Regions' Leagues to scrounge some glory.

This summarizes exactly what I wanted to see out of a Sword and Shield series and now it bums me out even more that we don't have it.

I guess I made my first post too soon, because Journeys has started to take another nosedive in term of episode quality for me. The ups and downs of this series' content is wildly frustrating. Episodes I initially look forward to end up letting me down, and episodes I'm not as excited for end up being the better ones. The fact that I was more entertained by a random Pokémon competition episode than one with freaking Mewtwo doesn't sit right. I'm really hoping that in the new year it goes back to a steady upswing and stays that way, but right now, this formula seems destined to be extremely inconsistent.
 
I'd think I'd be fine with either, but must point out that a straight Sw/Sh adaptation would prolly be more beholden to recent trends than Journeys.

  1. For starters, Goh and Chole would not exist in a straight Galar anime as they were original charterer designed specifically for the Journeys anime and because Ash's traveling companions had usually been lifted from the games (Tracey is an exception and even then a short lived one, and recent films are to the anime what Ultimate Marvel is to Earth 616 Marvel). As such his companions are more likely to be Hop, Milo and/or Gloria. Even if Goh and Chloe still existed in that timeline their charatcers would be that the former would be more like a rival a la Sawyer and that the latter would likely not appear at all (which is basiclay the same as not existing as a charatcer) given her school life so far (granted this is assuming changes weren't made in that case and that they would still be Kantoians).
  2. His roster would have been less diverse, as most of the previous series had restrcted him to catching pokemon native to the region and the few exceptions are due to fanservice (Charizard), being the mascot (Pikachu) or more relevantly having an evolved formed introduced in the region. There is also the matter of Comfernce teams but I think that ceased with Sinnoh or Hoenn. That isn't to say that Journeys doens't have an issue of sticking to one region's suite of mons, but it was also theoen where he caught a Lucario and Galarian Farfetch'd, point is a Galar anime would ahd made region locking a guaretnee rather than a possibility (also would have pointout that Dexit happened and would've inevitbaly affected the anime if it went this route anyway)
  3. On a more positive note, it would also ensure the Darkest day plot would be properly placed, but with the amount of filler that usually happens int his series, that could had also be better done in Journey's anyway with a little bit of Foresight. Like an arc covering two gyms, then some stuff in other regions, then repeat.
  4. Another difference would be that the samething that would happen to Ash would also happened to Team Rocket, which apart from 2 mainstays would also wind up stuck catching a few pokemon native to Galar
  5. A marked difference from prior series AND Journeys would be that given the way Galar Gym challenges work, that the badge quest would likely have a bit more emphasis on celebrity life and that the matches are more likely to be akin to the conference/league matches than the avergae "gym match in a near empty stadium". All things cosndier it woudne't strch belief that Ash would be treated as such considering that he did win the Alola leage and saved Kalos ceom certaindestrction, on top of mostly consistent placements in the top brackets of other leagues and the networking he winds up doing as a result of his journeys (and as a resuslt of travelling with several people including other Gym Leaders.
 
I'd think I'd be fine with either, but must point out that a straight Sw/Sh adaptation would prolly be more beholden to recent trends than Journeys.

  1. For starters, Goh and Chole would not exist in a straight Galar anime as they were original charterer designed specifically for the Journeys anime and because Ash's traveling companions had usually been lifted from the games (Tracey is an exception and even then a short lived one, and recent films are to the anime what Ultimate Marvel is to Earth 616 Marvel). As such his companions are more likely to be Hop, Milo and/or Gloria. Even if Goh and Chloe still existed in that timeline their charatcers would be that the former would be more like a rival a la Sawyer and that the latter would likely not appear at all (which is basiclay the same as not existing as a charatcer) given her school life so far (granted this is assuming changes weren't made in that case and that they would still be Kantoians).
  2. His roster would have been less diverse, as most of the previous series had restrcted him to catching pokemon native to the region and the few exceptions are due to fanservice (Charizard), being the mascot (Pikachu) or more relevantly having an evolved formed introduced in the region. There is also the matter of Comfernce teams but I think that ceased with Sinnoh or Hoenn. That isn't to say that Journeys doens't have an issue of sticking to one region's suite of mons, but it was also theoen where he caught a Lucario and Galarian Farfetch'd, point is a Galar anime would ahd made region locking a guaretnee rather than a possibility (also would have pointout that Dexit happened and would've inevitbaly affected the anime if it went this route anyway)
  3. On a more positive note, it would also ensure the Darkest day plot would be properly placed, but with the amount of filler that usually happens int his series, that could had also be better done in Journey's anyway with a little bit of Foresight. Like an arc covering two gyms, then some stuff in other regions, then repeat.
  4. A marked difference from prior series AND Journeys would be that given the way Galar Gym challenges work, that the badge quest would likely have a bit more emphasis on celebrity life and that the matches are more likely to be akin to the conference/league matches than the avergae "gym match in a near empty stadium". All things cosndier it woudne't strch belief that Ash would be treated as such considering that he did win the Alola leage and saved Kalos ceom certaindestrction, on top of mostly consistent placements in the top brackets of other leagues and the networking he winds up doing as a result of his journeys (and as a resuslt of travelling with several people including other Gym Leaders.
Why is it necessary that Sword and Shiel will maintain trends though? The Alola series was well... an Alola series but they broke many trends and the status quo. They literally changed the tone of the series in that one. They could just break different status quos in a Galar just as they did in Alola. This pretty much declared points 1 and 2 void for me personally.

  • Another difference would be that the samething that would happen to Ash would also happened to Team Rocket, which apart from 2 mainstays would also wind up stuck catching a few pokemon native to Galar
Honestly speaking, this change will singlehandedly elevate TR from the absymal treatment in JN. I wouldn’t use the verb "stuck". What they’re "stuck" with is a soulless machine right now.
 
I have stated this before, but as much as I like and want to like it even more, I gotta come clean guys: Journeys sounded really good as a concept, but to me, they are not really using it to it's full potencial.

At first, the concept of not being anchored to a single region was NICE. Really. But I think that the main problem is that we are stuck on Kanto way too much.

So instead of revisiting older locations and characters to see how they are doing now, and rematching them for the PWC (i.e the Korrina episode), and meeting a whole new region with whole new characters (I think the Bea episodes and that one were they went through the Wild Area are perfect examples of this)... There are basically 4 eps in a row in Kanto, one in a random region where they basically don't do anything of value, and here we go back for MORE Kanto. The most recent Unova ep is a great example here. I can't be the only one who's tired of this region already. I mean, how long since we had a PWC battle? You know... what was supossed to be the main plot point of the series??????

It literally feels like we are almost stagnant at this point. I do REALLY like this series, but I can't help but feel frustated about it, tbh.
 
Why is it necessary that Sword and Shiel will maintain trends though? The Alola series was well... an Alola series but they broke many trends and the status quo. They literally changed the tone of the series in that one. They could just break different status quos in a Galar just as they did in Alola. This pretty much declared points 1 and 2 void for me personally.


And I see Journeys continuing the trend-breaking. However I see a more straight adaptation as thus a rejection of that approach and thus a return to existing trends (plus none of those broken trends included what i mentioned in Point one, where all of Ash's classmates were lifted from the games, or Point two, where all his pokemon besides Pikachu were introduced in Alola)

Could it be possible that they could do something different with a straighter Galar adaptation? perhaps, but I don't think it would be likely.

Also I could had sworn that the TRio had caught some pokemon in Journeys, something to show for their efforts besides the worst possible advertisement for Pokemon Masters :p
 
IMO, Journeys could be great if...

A. The main cast wasn't stuck to Kanto or even residing there and traveled around the regions much more.
B. Goh had a much more interesting and engaging goal.
C. There was more balance between Ash and Goh's goals
D. Chloe was a main character
 
No, this series has just as much potential for greatness as a SwSh series would have had, if not more due to the continuity potential. Its failings have all been in its execution, and don't doubt that a SwSh series would have suffered from the same issues: episodic format, inconsistent character development, ect.. It would be the same team making it.

The only plus side I could see would be the absence of a second main protagonist, which could potentially fix the "in-the-background Ash" problem. But again, that doesn't necessarily have to exist in this series.
 
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Sometimes I wonder if the big problem with Journeys is that it debuted so late into Pokemon's lifespan. If it debuted about 10 years ago, maybe there'd be less Kanto pandering and proper balancing of the regions since there would be less to work with. No clue on how the other flaws would be remedied, but it's a start?
 
Sometimes I wonder if the big problem with Journeys is that it debuted so late into Pokemon's lifespan. If it debuted about 10 years ago, maybe there'd be less Kanto pandering and proper balancing of the regions since there would be less to work with. No clue on how the other flaws would be remedied, but it's a start?
Doubt it. The way I see it, Journeys' problem stems from trying to juggle too many balls and ultimately ends in dropping them. The "Double Protagonist" format malfunctions when the duo have completely separate goals that end up competing with each other for screentime instead of organically supporting and building on one another.

Similarly the idea of globe trotting sounds great on paper but when you go from A to B, then back to A then on to C then back to A it isn't really a journey but more of a bunch of errands you're being sent on before having to return to homebase. I miss the days when the crew would do stuff like camp and have to cook their own meals. It all added to a sense of adventure that Journeys is sorely lacking. Not to mention having characters reappear beyond just being just COTD so that you could see growth in more than just the MCs which lends to the world feeling more organic as a result. Don't even get me started on how poorly executed the PWC and Gou's catching antics have been handled.

Now I'm not saying a Sw/Sh anime would be perfect (especially under this team) but I would say it likely would be a lot more focused with clearer progression instead of just spinning its wheels like I feel Journeys has been doing.
 
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